When it comes to computers,humans have an insatiable need for speed.
Yet with our current designs,we're starting to approach some fundamental limits on how fast they can get.
Well,what if there was a different kind of computer one that ran faster,used less energy and all the while,cut back on pollution from electronic waste.
Well,that's all science.No fiction.
It's probably one of the weirder things you'll see in a science lab,especially in a lab making computer parts.
It's just processed.Starbuck honey.
It's off the shelf a little cute berry so we can put it in photos.But for Zoe Templin and the heady Tim,
this honey is key because it is cheap and it is easily accessible to everyone.
It also has natural chemical properties that make it a promising foundation for a new kind of environmentally friendly computer component being developed in the Pacific Northwest.
Electronics in general produce so much toxic waste.
Like it really is a devastating amount of electronic waste that occurs.
The world produces about 50 million tons of electronic waste per year.
Only 20% is recycled,meaning the other 80% ends up in landfills
using honey instead of materials like silicon and computers would make recycling easier and less toxic
because honey breaks down in water.
I would love to see this become a stepping stone to having electronically clean waste and actually getting organic materials out into your phone into commercial use.
The computer part,the team is building is something relatively new in the world of electronics.It's called a memristor.
Memristor is a portmanteau of the words memory and resistor.Both essential for computers.
Honey has the chemical characteristics needed to make memristor work.So they have a big
molecule chains
in the material and we need those molecule chains
in order for us to make our devices.The team also focused on honey because it's stable and doesn't spoil.
And unlike traditional computer materials producing,it actually benefits the environment.
We are going to drop honey on it.
Templin uses a centrifuge to spin the honey into a thin even layer.It's thinner than hair.
She'll make the memristor by sandwiching the honey between two metal electrodes.
You have metal insulator metal,
the memristor combination of memory and electricity resistance is unique in electronics.But there's another place where this combo is quite common
in our brains.
Our brains are full of nerve cells called neurons.And when we learn our neurons create connections between each other,the points where the neurons connect are synapses.
When we hear a new piece of information,a small bridge is built across the synapse.
The bridge is our memory.
The more we hear the information repeated,the more robust that memory bridge becomes
our neurons and the synapse
they process uh
data and they store data.At the same time.
This dual purpose is a huge deal and helps make our brains the most efficient computers on the planet.
The team's memristor works the same way.
It builds bridges through the honey when exposed to certain levels of electricity.That's the data processing.
When the electricity stops flowing,the bridge remains intact.
That's the memory.If you reverse the flow of electricity,the memory is wiped clean.
We are building systems of memory that are as efficient as how the brain stores memory.
So we need to basically test to write data
into the memory.
Then after that,we erase data,
the test will show whether their honey based memristor is able to learn and store memory like our synapses.
I
think you need to move
the probe a little bit,
no contact.
Oh,
there we go.
They'll be able to track the honey Mor's
performance through a readout on the computer.
They power up the probes
on a graph shows the bridge forming through the honey.
So now the data is written in the memory.Then what we need is to erase the data,
they reverse the flow of electricity,
basically want to burn our bridge.
The bridge breaks down
beautiful.This proves our honey device is a
memory.
So if you have a computer component that mimics a brain cell.Could you put a bunch of them together and get a computer that mimics a brain?
The answer is yes.
Right now,our device simulate single neuron,single synapse.But we want to integrate those devices together and then this will behave more like our uh our brain.
This is the idea behind neuromorphic computing.
A new revolution in computer design.
This is a building block like this is a synapse from my brain.So by combining millions of device like this,then I can build a neuro
of
chip which can actually do the computation that a supercomputer can do.But within 100 times faster and using 1000 times less energy
pretty much every computer we use is based on a design that's 80 years old.
The Von Neumann architecture
mm
in this design,the part of the computer that processes information is separate from the part that stores it.
This conventional computing systems consumes a tremendous amount of energy
they require time.So they are slower.
Neuromorphic computers solve this bottleneck.In part by having the processor and storage all in one place.
I want my research to provide
a solution.
That is what the team is doing
by developing a biodegradable computer component made of honey
for a computer system that's more energy efficient than any we've ever seen.
The team is taking computers into a faster and cleaner new age.
I'm actually extremely fortunate to have been raised and grown up in the Pacific Northwest that cares about the environment to this level where I can do research
that could truly help the environment in a way that really hasn't been explored before.
That's the key.
We don't need a supercomputer to figure out that all science.No fiction wouldn't be possible without the support of OPB members.Thanks
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